Sunday, June 24, 2012

airblue evaluating new aircraft

The carrier airblue from Pakistan is currently evaluating the introduction of new Airbus A340-300 and Bombardier Q400. Nowadays the airline is operating with an fleet of 5 Airbus A319/A320 and serves some domestic routes in Pakistan and international services to the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Furthermore airblue is flying from Islamabad to Manchester with an technical stop in Turkey. The airline plans to add two leased Airbus A340-300 for replacing the Airbus A319 on the Islamabad-Manchester and set up new routes from Pakistan to Europe and Asia. Beside, airblue plans to expand its fleet with Bombadier Q400, which would allow the airline to open new domestic routes.

airblue commenced operations in 2004. In 2010 there was fatal accident with one Airbus A321, which crashed in the near of Islamabad. In the accident, all 146 passengers and six crew members lost their life. The airline has recently changed their IATA-code from ED to PA. Currently the fleet is among of the youngest in the region with an average age of only about four years.